Em, just in case you were wondering, I love your poetry. You may have picked up on this, and it fills me with joy that the seed of this idea of an online café of writers came from reading your poetry set in those original cafes.

THIS poem, though, is just beautiful start to finish. I suppose a measure of a successful poem to me is how many times I read it and whether or not I come away with something new every time. Check. And every time I finish, the depth of meaning and the beauty of words gets richer. This one is an absolute gEM (sorry… couldn’t resist). Liquid sunset, clouds out of the linen dress, the scented skin. Rich sensuality. Then the dream sequence, she lingers on his taste buds and the very essential meaning in the end of only being able to know ecstasy by knowing the pain. A wonderfully sensual and human poem.